Burglary At Home In Wilson Set Up By Another, Inmate Says

A Northampton County Prison inmate testified yesterday in Northampton County Court that 38-year-old Michael Hoagland set up the burglary he committed at a Wilson home.

Judge Michael V. Franciosa is presiding over Hoagland's trial on charges of burglary, theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy, stemming from the May 30-31 break-in and theft at a home at 2473 Lincoln Street, Avona Heights, Wilson.

Jeffrey Kukor, 26, who will plead guilty this week to charges he faces in the burglary, testified that he was the one who actually broke into the home. But Kukor, who admitted that he is addicted to methamphetamines, said that Hoagland - who was on work release from Lehigh County Prison at the time - set up the burglary.

Under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Englesson, Kukor said he was getting the stimulant drug from Hoagland. On May 30, Hoagland came to the Easton house where Kukor was living. "We did some crank (methamphetamine) - we shot up, both of us - and went out for a ride in the car.

"He drove me past this house and told me the people wouldn't be homethat night. He drove me past the house three times, to make sure I knew how to get there. He told me whatever I got, he would get rid of." However, "I hadn't thought about how I'd get there," Kukor said.

Kukor said he walked from his house to the scene of the burglary, broke into the home and ransacked it. "I tore everything apart, looking for something valuable." He set the items he planned to take near the rear door.

At about 4 or 4:30 a.m., he said he left the house and walked to a convenience store at 17th and Butler streets, where he called his brother-in- law to come and pick him up. His brother-in-law drove him back to the burglarized home, where Kukor said he was going to collect some money owed to him.

He placed the items in the car and unloaded it at his brother-in-law's house. The brother-in-law, and later Kukor's sister, testified that neither of them wanted the items in the house, and told him to have them out by the time the brother-in-law returned from work.

At the house later in the day, Kukor's sister said Hoagland made a telephone call. She heard him tell the other party that "he had stuff to sell - his sister was moving and she wanted to get rid of it."

Kukor's brother-in-law said that the day after the burglary, Hoagland asked him for the remote control for the color television taken in the burglary. "He said the TV wouldn't work without it," the man said. His wife found the unit in their house and he gave it to Hoagland, he said.

On May 31, Hoagland came to pick up the items and he and Kukor drove them to Bethlehem, where Hoagland sold them to a man in a parking lot. Kukor said Hoagland told him he got $350 for the items, which included the color television, a microwave oven and a computer. Kukor said he got $20 or $30. The rest of his pay was in methamphetamines worth about $180, he said.

However, Hoagland's attorney, Renald Baratta, noted that his client was in Lehigh County Prison at the time of the burglary. He was on a work-release program, let out of the prison to help his mother with her kennel business in Wind Gap. Hoagland is now being held in Bucks County Prison.

Kukor said Hoagland had told him he didn't have to worry about being checked for drugs, because Lehigh County Prison officials only made drug checks on prisoners returning from furloughs, "and he never took furloughs."

Hoagland testified that he had met Kukor in April, when the man came to his mother's home. He said Kukor was unemployed and looking for work and a place to stay.

Baratta said in his opening statement that contrary to Kukor's story of Hoagland setting up the crime, Hoagland was trying to stay away from Kukor.